Akihiko has short silver hair, gray eyes (hazel brown in Persona 3 The Movie), pale skin and wears a white band-aid above his left eye. He wears a slightly modified school uniform of the Gekkoukan High School, where he replaces the standard jacket with a red sweater vest. Additionally, he wears black leather gloves. His standard summer outfit consists of a red v-neck t-shirt and white pants, while he is seen wearing a white jacket and a red scarf, as well as white pants on winter days. He is never seen without his gloves except during the trip to Yakushima while he is on the beach and briefly during the school field trip in Kyoto.

During his flashback scene in Persona 3 FES which takes place of an unspecified amount of time before the beginning of Persona 3, a much younger Akihiko is depicted, having softer facial features and a band-aid around his nose. He wears a red shirt under his white chemise and black pants.

In Persona 4 Arena, a 20 year-old Akihiko is seen. He has another band-aid on his right cheek, a cross shaped scar on the left side of his head, and stubble. He wears brown pants, and the left thigh of his pants is bandaged, while the right has several tears on it. He wears reddish brown boxing gloves and a matching cape. He does not wear a shirt, and he seems to have been injured by a huge animal, as he has three scars on his chest, and a few scars on his arms as well. In addition, he carries a machete, a bottle of water, large knife, and an Evoker with him.

In Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, his casual attire is a light gray suit with a black collar shirt.

In the parallel universe anime spin-off Persona -Trinity Soul-, an older and more mature Akihiko is seen with slightly tanned skin and doesn't wear the band-aid above his left eye. He is seen wearing a black suit with a light brown collar shirt, red tie and black gloves.

A cool and well-respected upperclassman, Akihiko is serious and determined, as well as cracking small jokes on small occasions (such as with Junpei, though this happens not as often), and tends to show his excitement for a big challenge. He also has an aggressive side, which he usually demonstrates when dealing with Shadows. He never gives up and always tries to get stronger in order to protect what is dear to him and feels guilty for not being able to save his sister, Miki, from the fire. He acts like an older brother for the younger SEES members and especially in Persona 3 Portable if the player chooses to play as the female protagonist, Akihiko is shown to care a lot about her. Akihiko is on good terms with Shinjiro and keeps in touch with him even after he quit SEES, and cares a lot for him, as shown when Akihiko finds out about the drugs Shinjiro uses in order to prevent his Persona from going berserk. This part of Akihiko's personality is demonstrated once again after Shinjiro gets killed (or falls in a coma, in case the player manages to max Shinjiro's Social Link before his demise in the female protagonist's storyline in Persona 3 Portable), when he is seen grieving his death (or desperately begging Shinjiro to wake up, in the case of the coma). Despite his rather cool and disciplined demeanor, Akihiko is frequently dragged into Junpei's various antics (usually against his will), where he, unlike his usual self, often starts to panic and completely lose his composure (often due to fearing Mitsuru's anger).

Akihiko is often depicted as aloof, and in some cases, completely unaware of the fanbase of female students, who often follow him around school. He finds this irritating and will sometimes complain to the protagonist about it. He is eager to train and fight, to a fault. Early on in the game, when he is injured due to a fight with one of the twelve full moon shadows, he will repeatedly express interest in fighting despite being unable to. This draws criticism from Mitsuru, who views Akihiko's eagerness to fight as if he treats their work as a game.

Akihiko Sanada is the captain of the Gekkoukan High School boxing team and, along with Mitsuru Kirijo and Shinjiro Aragaki, one of the original member of SEES. He and Shinjiro grew up in an orphanage together with Akihiko's little sister, Miki, who died in a fire that destroyed the orphanage. Devastated by her death and feeling powerless that he could not save her, Akihiko vowed to become stronger. He took up boxing so he could learn how to fight, becoming a champion student boxer in the process.

Shinjiro and Akihiko remained friends after Miki's death. However, an incident occurred during an early SEES mission which put a strain on Akihiko and Shinjiro's relationship. Shinjiro's Persona went berserk while combating a shadow, killing an innocent bystander (Ken Amada's mother) in the process. Feeling guilty, Shinjiro immediately left SEES. Akihiko used the incident as a springboard to focus even more on his strength and fighting the shadows. He began to criticize his friend for retreating when others needed his help. Throughout the game, Akihiko repeatedly tries to talk Shinjiro into joining SEES again. When Ken Amada joins the party, Akihiko, with the aid of the Protagonist, forces Shinjiro to join.

During the events of the Strength and Fortune full moon battles, Akihiko is unsettled and distracted by the absence of Ken and Shinjiro. He later realizes the date: October 4, the day Shinjiro's persona killed Ken's mother. He leaves the others in search of Ken and Shinjiro, finding them both behind Port Island Station along with Strega member Takaya Sakaki, who has interrupted Shinjiro and Ken's conversation and intends to kill them both. He has already shot Shinjiro and was aiming to shoot Ken; but Shinjiro stops Takaya from killing Ken by taking another bullet despite knowing that Ken has made a vow to kill him to avenge his mother's death. Shinjiro's last words are a request that Akihiko take care of Ken, and he states that his death is how things should be.

Akihiko crying at Shinjiro's memorial.

Mourning the loss of his friend, Akihiko nonetheless finds himself amazed that Shinjiro could face death so bravely and vows to face difficulty head on. This resolution causes his Persona to evolve into into Caesar. He is one of the first characters to express his determination to fight Nyx, despite knowing she cannot be defeated.

Akihiko does not originally come to see the closing of the Dorm. He only arrives after Mitsuru calls him over, and he becomes trapped in the dorm with them. During the debate over how to use the keys to the past or the present, Akihiko chooses the present with the support of Ken Amada.

A door to Akihiko's past reveals how he was recruited to SEES After a boxing match during his years as a middle school student, Mitsuru Kirijo approaches him with a gun (an Evoker) and offers him a new way of fighting.

Akihiko is a new Social Link if the player pursues the female protagonist's route. However, his Social Link is of the Star Arcana instead of the Emperor. The Social Link is initiated by talking to him starting on May 25 with level 4 Charm or higher.

In this Social Link, Akihiko will express his desire to gain strength in order to protect others and concern for the well-being of the protagonist, who at earlier parts of the game he treats as a little sister. As time passes, the player sees Akihiko as not just a "cool upperclassman" that many of the girls in school fawn over, but as a man who cannot cope with the darkness of his past and cannot socialize well with others because of it. He later on grows more anxious towards the Female Protagonist, to the point of asking her if there was any way for her to stop fighting.

The Social Link then freezes until after the events on October 4, where Akihiko admits that his treatment of the Female Protagonist, that is similar to the treatment of his deceased sister Miki, would be considered as opening up and sharing the burden with her. Thus his resolution to stop the Dark Hour now serves a different purpose: to protect the people he loves and cherishes, including the Female Protagonist.

At the end of the social link, Akihiko gives the player a rabbit doll (stating that the doll is reminiscent of her and of his memories of a happier Miki) and finally comes to terms with his own past, at last looking forward to creating a better future. The rabbit doll grants the ability to fuse Helel, the lightbringer.

It is possible for the player to have a romantic relationship with him, though the player has to choose special dialogue choices that are scattered throughout certain ranks of his Social Link. If the player chooses all of the correct dialogue and has accepted the offer to be Akihiko's "girl" at Rank 9, the Lovers Route for this Arcana will be triggered.

After graduating from Gekkoukan High, Akihiko went to college. He decided, however, to perfect his punch and traveled the world in his pursuit of becoming stronger. Around that time, he had also become associated with Mitsuru's Shadow Operatives and is called upon to help retrieve Labrys in the TV world in Inaba. During the "tournament", he comes across Chie Satonaka and becomes impressed by her resolve to protect Labrys, though he has never seen her before and reminds him of his reasons for fighting. After the incident, Akihiko decides that he'll eventually, in the far future, leave the Shadow Operatives and become a police officer. Mitsuru tells him, however, he needs to go back to college so she assigns Aigis to help manage Akihiko. With a new resolve, Akihiko is determined to find the mastermind behind the incident and put an end to their plot.

Akihiko is the token boxer character with a special mechanic dubbed the Cyclone meter and boasts the second highest health in the game. Not only does Akihiko have a snappy offense and multiple ways to close the gap between him and his opponent, he also is blessed with Paralysis on some of his attacks and can ignore projectiles and some normals. He is also not as reliant on his Persona compared to other characters, thus Persona Breaks don't really affect him as much as others but they do provide him with whatever zoning tools he does have. All being said, he has no reliable option against opponents that like to fight at long range and is quite heavy, becoming something of double-edged sword. He's also an example of a Rekka style character, a character that links special moves with other special moves which also affects his Cyclone gauge. This increases the cyclone gauge by one (max of three) for every special move he cancels. This is important as it changes the properties of some of his follow-ups as well as give more damage, for example his Corkscrew follow-up becomes a wall-bounce at level 3. Thus it become imperative that players have his combos on point to take advantage of his moves as some of his most advanced combos on Fatal Counter can push around 7000 points of damage.

In Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, due to rarely having to rely on his Persona, Akihiko only has two Persona cards which can be considered a buff/nerf (Persona gets broken easier but recovers faster). His cyclone gauge is increased by two making it a maximum of 5. He has a new rekka move called the 'Sonic Uppercut' and his C attacks has been changed. His 5C is now was his 2C was in Persona 4 Arena and his new 2C is an Anti-Air attack that inflicts the ailment Silence upon hit. His B corkscrew now sends the enemy backwards upon contact while his A corkscrew generally remained the same. With the addition of Enhanced SP-skills, Akihiko's three specials have now increased in specialty.

Enhanced Thunder Fists now has a hitbox and if the enemy is not blocking they will be inflicted with shock

Enhanced Maziodyne now does extra damage and hits and inflicts shock even on block

Enhanced Cyclone Uppercut will make Akihiko do two upppercuts. If Akihiko's Cyclone gauge is at 5 then he will do three uppercuts for massive damage.

Akihiko's faces off against Yu Narukami. Though he puts up a tough fight and gets in several hits that would affect Yu later, Akihiko was ultimately defeated by Yu when he unleashes Izanagi. When the possessed Labrys attempts to crush Aigis' neck, both Akihiko and Mitsuru smash through a wall and hit her, releasing Aigis from her grasp.

In the parallel universe anime spin-off, Persona -trinity soul-, Akihiko is an informant to Ryo Kanzato, shown only as the man Ryo discusses Reverse cases with over the cellphone. He appears in person after Ryo's confrontation with Keisuke Komatsubara leads to his disappearance, taking up the role of superintendent in his absence. He reveals that as an adult, he no longer possesses the ability to use persona, but worked alongside Ryo and Noboru Inui to cover up persona-related incidents and prevent their occurrence. To fight Marebito, he enlists the help of Shin Kanzato, Jun Kanzato, Megumi Kayano, and Takuro Sakakiba.

Akihiko's Persona, Polydeuces, is a something of a giveaway towards his connection with Shinjiro if looked at in small depth. Polydeuces - other than being a celestial body - is another name for Pollux, who is one of the Gemini Twins with the other being Castor, the latter of whom is the Persona for Shinjiro. Both of whom (Personas) share a similar physical stature, facial build, and focus on sheer strength.

This connection also gives away Shinjiro's fate; Polydeuces was immortal and Castor was not, and in their myth, Castor dies (in response, Polydeuces requests to share his immortality with Castor, which leads to the two brothers forming the Gemini Twins constellation).

Akihiko is left-handed, thus his fighting style represents a southpaw stance, but when using gloves the protagonist uses an orthodox style. He is also one of two Persona-users in the game who use his left hand when handling his Evoker (the other being Jin Shirato of Strega).

The Shirt of Chivalry, a type of costume for males in FES and P3P, is noted for the kanji symbols on their back that symbolizes the character. Akihiko's kanji means "Fight" (闘), a very fitting sign for his character.

One of the portraits in Persona 4 Arena is an edited version of the one used in Persona 3 Portable during All-Out Attacks and co-op attacks.

In Persona 3 FES: The Answer, when the group is trying to see what is wrong with Aigis, Akihiko voice's turns into Mitsuru's voice, this only happens once and is fixed in the European release.

It can be noted that some of Akihiko's early concept art bears a striking resemblance to Teddie from Persona 4.

According to Zen United, the European publisher of Persona 4 Arena, Akihiko's appearance in said game was originally going to be modeled after Jason Statham and how he looks in the Transporter movie series. Soejima was asked to redesign him to look more "wild or rugged" by Wada, the game's director, after they noticed that no other character in the roster would be able to fill that role.

In Persona 4 Arena, Akihiko reveals that he learned how to summon his Persona without the aid of an Evoker. He still uses it when executing Maziodyne and his Instant Kill attack, Earth Breaker, however. He also uses his Evoker during his fight against "himself" in story mode.

In Persona 4 Arena, Akihiko's Cyclone Uppercut attack is based on his critical hit animation from Persona 3.

In Persona 4 Arena, Akihiko is the only male character (aside from Yu and Teddie) to have his weight a mystery like the female characters.

In "Persona 4 Arena" Akihiko mentioned possibly joining the police force, this may be an allusion to his role in Persona: Trinity Soul.